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Published 13 December 2022 | 2 min read
Unsurprisingly, alcohol is often a factor when the work Christmas party turns sour
Waking up naked in a field in rural Manawatū – when the work Christmas function was held in central Wellington.
That’s just one of the work Christmas party horror stories shared with Stuff by employment lawyers, who also offer some advice on how to avoid starting the New Year in an employment tribunal, or worse.
Hesketh Henry partner Jim Roberts said one work do story immediately comes to mind.
“They had chartered a bus and taken the office and partners up to one of the vineyards ... on the way back one of the younger ladies in the office sat on the lap of her manager, and from there things got out of hand,” he said.
This divided the bus down the middle between the “harmless fun” camp, and the inappropriate behaviour camp.
“That seemed to escalate to pushing and shoving then a bit of a brawl,” Roberts said.
“By this time the bus driver had had enough and pulled over, offloaded everyone and rang the police.
“The police had apparently turned up and carted away a fair few of the company’s management team.
“The managing director asked me what he should do.”
Roberts said he then started working through “the usual patter of an employment process”, but the managing director had a more pressing concern.
“He stopped me with, no, no, no – I don’t want to discipline anyone, you are a lawyer and I want to know how to get them out of the police cells before Monday otherwise we don’t have a business.”
Roberts said a second horror story that sprang to mind also involved a vineyard – everyone Stuff spoke to noted, unsurprisingly – that alcohol was almost always a factor.
It involved an end of year function and a “senior manager, pre-loaded”.
“He got progressively louder and more obscene as things progressed,” Roberts said.
When another senior manager tried to intervene, and the man was eventually shifted outside, he then yelled “I have been here before. I know what to do”.
“He then promptly swung his arm and spun punching himself in the face and dropping to the ground,” Roberts said.
“As soon as he landed on the ground he yelled ‘did you see that – he punched me’ while pointing at the managing director.
“Unlike the first one above, this one did result in an employment process.”
For sheer distance covered, Dundas Street Employment Lawyers partner Ros Webby may have the best horror story.
This involved someone who woke up “naked in fields in the middle of rural Manawatu – when the function was in central Wellington”.
According to Google, that’s around 200km from his starting point.
They’re not all funny stories, however.
“Inappropriate comments, sexual harassment, sexual assault, verbal or physical assault, and fighting.”
That’s some of the sinister side of the work Christmas dos that employment law specialist and barrister Catherine Stewart has dealt with.
“The vast majority of them involve alcohol in one way or another,” she said.
“Whilst inebriated, people may say or do things that they never would have otherwise which can result in legal cases being pursued.
“Examples are: a boss ‘out of the blue’ declaring his love for his junior worker, or a worker starting up a false rumour about people in the workplace.
“The risk seems to grow in direct proportion to the amount of alcohol provided, and it is still relatively common for workplaces to provide unlimited alcohol at Christmas parties, creating a minefield of potential legal risk.”
Stewart said incidents in the wake of work Christmas parties have spiralled into conduct investigations that can last months, involving “enormous time, stress and cost”.
“The eventual outcome may result in disciplinary action against the staff member, or even dismissal, which can be devastating for them,” she said.
“In the worst-case scenario, this could all spill over into court proceedings which might go on for months or years, affecting the morale and reputation of both the employee and employer.
“It is not uncommon for people in these types of situations to regret ever attending the Christmas party in the first place.”
Webby said one way to mitigate potential disaster is for staff to imagine their clients, customers or even the media is present at the bash, also warning alcohol does not tend to make anyone “more attractive or less predatory”.
“And if a colleague or manager tells you that it’s best if you call it a night, do yourself, and everyone else you’ve likely either insulted or revolted a huge favour, and head safely home.”
Stewart said staff should treat any event as an “at work” event, irrespective of the venue or hour.
She said employers should also be mindful of their obligations under the Health and Safety at Work Act.
“It just means taking care of common sense things like not drinking to excess, not engaging in sexually offensive behaviour, and not punching anyone in the face,” she said.
“It is surprising how many times these kinds of things actually do happen at Christmas parties and result in legal cases.”
Click here to read the article by Stuff.